Afghanistan’s Vice and Virtue Department Returns
by Jennifer Crosby
A tourist walking through downtown Kabul, Afghanistan might be quite surprised with what he sees; images of women walking alone (often not wearing the required burqa), men drinking beer, and western-style shopping malls are not uncommon. However, this is all about to change. This summer, Afghan President Hamid Karzai endorsed a plan to reinstate the country’s infamous Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The department was notorious for providing brutal punishment for small transgressions. Under the Taliban, men with insufficiently long beards, women who exposed a wrist or ankle, or appeared in public without a male relative (a particularly difficult requirement considering all the widows created during 1979-1996 civil war), were brutally beaten and publicly humiliated. Women were stoned to death for adultery, and girls were prohibited from receiving an education.
Afghanistan’s new government claims that their version of Vice and Virtue would be much “softer,” and merely aim to get rid of problems with alcohol and prostitution; however, human rights groups are up in arms. Karzai is said be simply appeasing his conservative and fundamentalist colleagues, but many are worried that the establishment of the department could quickly lead to abuse. Since the overthrow of the Taliban nearly five years ago, the country has been significantly liberalized, which is unpopular with many residents. Recently, there have been attempts to reverse this trend with, for example, the forced closings of many schools established to educate girls, particularly in the country’s southern region. Conservative Afghans are also concerned about the increasing presence of alcohol, illegal in Afghanistan, but now commonly sold to westerners, and sometimes to the Afghans themselves. Prostitution involving Asians and Eastern Europeans has long gone unpunished, and now many are eager to see it stopped.
But it is still unclear why the government feels a need to create this department devoted to the punishment of vice, when nearly all the vices involved are already illegal under current Afghan law. This turn towards stricter Islamic law might be signaling a bow to the increasing pressure of fundamentalists. Women, in particular, would be subject to these laws, and some fear that they will be kicked out of schools and forced to quit working. Many are also concerned that Afghanistan is ignoring its top priorities: establishing a viable economy, recovering from civil war, weeding out political corruption, and improving its educational system.
A large number of Afghans, however, are not against the likely reestablishment of the Vice and Virtue Department. Indeed, they believe that under recent western influence, the country has lost both its culture and its morality. A surprising majority say they would support the opening of the department, given that it does not become the brutal police force it once was. While there is support for the plan, it is clear that the reestablishment of the Vice and Virtue Department is a step in the wrong direction. The bureaucratic power that rests in the hands of the country’s conservatives, an increasing majority, might signal the return of the oppressive and violent rule that once dominated in Afghanistan. If the department is indeed reestablished, world leaders and human rights activists alike must keep a careful watch to ensure that it merely supports the enforcement of reasonable and pre-existing laws, and does not become the blatant abuse of bureaucratic power that it once was.
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